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Apple's 'iSlate' and other rumors that have given its stock a holiday boost
The Apple tablet rumors are at a fever pitch, yet again. Depending on what you've read, it's all but confirmed that the company's got a January 26th event scheduled at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco, CA. All this, of course, with nary a word or comment from Cupertino HQ, and without the context that this trend has come and gone ad nauseam, both with the tablet and before with the years of lead-up to the iPhone. Here's the latest bit: MacRumors has dug up information about a Delaware-based company, Slate Computing, LLC, that was founded in November 2006 and owns the trademark "iSlate," the signatory of said trademark being Apple's Senior Trademark Specialist Regina Porter. Given that Apple owns "iSlate" trademark in Europe and that it's allegedly pulled similar stunts with a "fake" company and the iPhone trademark, sure, we could buy into this being just a dummy corporation... but does it really confirm an impending tablet that'll be called the "iSlate?" Not at all. We wouldn't be surprised if Apple has done this for numerous other trademarks, either to give itself more options or to prevent others from trying to manufacture products under those names. (Slate Computing, LLC also happens to own the "Magic Slate" trademark, just so you know.) Also bought up in 2006? The domain iSlate.com, which again according to MacRumors (with help form Mark Gurman of AppleRejectedMe.com) was apparently and briefly shown to be owned by Apple at some point during 2007. Food for thought, but trust us, you don't want to confuse hearsay for concrete fact. Which brings us to December 24th, where we see a statistically significant uptick in Apple's stock value. Seeing as the fiscals were released back in late October along with the last refresh of hardware (Mac Pro specs notwithstanding), it seems everyone decided to spend their holiday bonuses on some Apple shares. Now, we're not claiming to be professionals here by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems a lot of the activity here can be attributed to the recent flux of rumors. Jason Schwarz of The Street has an interesting take on it, which if you've got 15 minutes to kill should be worth your time to browse through.
It's a Merry Christmas for AAPL shareholders, stock at all-time high
On December 14th, I posted an opinion piece sharing my thoughts that AAPL stock would hit $300 a share in a year (for which I received quite a lot of critical feedback). Two days later, on December 16th, Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty issued a report stating she believes there is a 25% chance that AAPL will be between $325 and $435 in the next twelve months (she also believes it could fall to $150 if Google's Android takes off and Apple drops the ball). Huberty based her bullish outlook on the scenario that iPhone sales are on pace to capture 10-15% of the handset market by 2012 – and this doesn't even include soaring Mac sales or the impending iSlate. Well, the stock isn't at $325 yet, but on December 24th, AAPL did close at an all-time high of $209.04. Not bad considering on December 8th, the stock was down almost 8% on its previous high of $208 on November 16th. Christmas Eve's 3.4% one-day gain was driven primarily by the news that Apple has booked the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for an event on January 26th. So, where does the stock go from here? Traditionally, there is an early-January slide for AAPL that coincides with the "buy on rumor, sell on news" MacWorld Expo event, but since MacWorld is going to be Apple-free from now on, who knows if that will happen this year. And even if the early January slide hits AAPL, the company has so much going for it besides the rumored iSlate, I'm beginning to think my $300 target is rather conservative. But that's the future. For now the $209 share price is a nice Christmas gift. Disclaimer: This author owns shares in AAPL. Opinions in this post are those of the author only and should not be considered as investment advice.
iSlate.com and the 'impending Apple slate'
As we mentioned earlier, MacRumors reported the discovery from Mark Gurman that Apple apparently bought the islate.com domain name a few years back. This name isn't so shocking when you remember the quote from New York Times executive editor Bill Keller at a meeting on October 26th about the future of digital content in the newspaper business: "I'm hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate..." At the time, Apple had been busy meeting with the heads of newspapers and magazines all over the world. Would Steve drop the name to the heads of the publishing industry? I think so. At the very least this will get people to stop calling the Apple tablet the 'iPad'. Let me say this clearly: Apple would never name the tablet the 'iPad'. It's too similar to 'iPod'. So, everyone, please stop calling it the iPad. If you want to listen to an interesting talk about the future of digital publishing and distribution, check out the video of Keller's speech below. If you want to jump to the 'impending Apple slate' mention, skip to 8:30. IMHO, 'iSlate' is a great name, but I want to know what you would call it. Tell us in the comments!
Video: another Apple tablet fantasy
French site Nowhereelse.fr has published some very cool video of what appears to be a multitouch tablet device. The user is browsing through an electronic version of an Ikea catalog. The device itself is very slim and seems to incorporate a multitude of Apple technologies: cover flow, shake to shuffle, Pure Coolness. Is this the Apple Tablet? Probably not. It's just a beautiful mockup that should give Apple some concern if their tablet isn't as cool as the device shown in the video. Check out the vid and let us know what you think of the device's authenticity in the comments.
